Goldman Sachs reportedly put a $1,000 price target on surgical robot maker Intuitive Surgical.
Goldman initiated coverage on Intuitive Surgical with a buy rating because robot-assisted procedures will double in the next two years, CNBC reported.
The firm's 12-month price target for the company is $1,000, representing 18 percent upside from Monday's close. Late Tuesday the stock was trading at $858.605.
"With less than 4 percent of US surgeries employing robotics today, we think investors should own this structural winner as the market doubles in the next few years," analyst Isaac Ro wrote in a note to clients Tuesday. "We think emerging markets are underappreciated and near-term concerns on competition are overblown given ISRG's proven outcomes/ease."
For its part, Intuitive Surgical also increased its 2017 forecast for growth in procedures using its da Vinci surgical robots after reporting higher-than-expected first-quarter revenue and profit.
Da Vinci procedures grew almost 18 percent worldwide, with a 28-percent jump reported outside the United States, driven by prostatectomies and strong growth in U.S. hernia procedures, Reuters reported.
Intuitive said it now expected full-year procedure growth of 12-14 percent, up from its prior view of 9-12 percent.
The company said average revenue per procedure for the quarter was $1,840.
"Procedure growth of about 18 percent was one of the strongest we have seen so far," Evercore ISI analyst Vijay Kumar said in a note.
The company said it was unsure if growth in a wide range of procedures in the United States was driven by patients seeking care ahead of any healthcare reform under which they could lose insurance coverage.
Intuitive, which has virtually no competition for its surgical robots, sold 133 da Vinci systems in the first quarter, up from 110 in the year-ago period. The systems cost about $1.5 million each.
Instrument and accessory revenue rose 18 percent to $381 million for the quarter.
"We feel our Q1 results were exceptional," Chief Executive Gary Guthart said on a conference call.
The company said price per da Vinci placement was likely to trend lower going forward as it began to offer lower priced and refurbished older systems to cost sensitive markets.
Intuitive also said Asian sales could be constrained until China approved the purchase of more da Vinci systems and Japan expanded reimbursement for additional procedures.
(Newsmax wires services contributed to this report).
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